SA embassy staff in Kenya traumatised

Spare a thought for South African diplomats in Kenya.

After the terror attack at the Westgate Mall, in Nairobi, our diplomats have been scouring mortuaries and police stations in search of South Africans.

South African High Commissioner to Kenya Ratubatsi Moloi said the attack had traumatised his people.

But there was a collective sigh of relief yesterday morning when a South African woman reported to be missing in Kenya was found alive and well. She travelled to Kenya on Saturday. Her family had asked Moloi's office to help locate her.

"On [Tuesday] night she managed to communicate with her family to say she was staying at a hotel that is very close to the mall and, because of the operations that were taking place, their communication lines were affected," said Moloi yesterday.

"This morning, the family sent us a message to say that she is well.

"I was also relieved because staff have been going to mortuaries and police stations and the like. By yesterday, I could see one of them was actually traumatised."

He said he could relate to this because he had performed the same daunting task in the past - searching corpses for identification. Moloi suggested that the traumatised man take the day off but he insisted that he was "okay".

The family of James Thomas, a Cape Town businessman killed in the attack, has made provisional arrangements for his funeral.

"We're waiting for news about when the body will be repatriated, it is just a process of administration that is not under our control. The funeral service was provisionally booked for next week," said family spokesman David Meldrum.

Sixty-one civilians and six security personnel were killed by the Islam terrorists who stormed the upmarket mall.